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Randolph Carter
Doctor Randolph Carter is a Boston author, mystic, professor and writer. He has taken particular interest in the history of Cthulhu; indeed, it is due to him that the Great Old Ones have recieved so much awareness in the 20th century. He was born in 1873 and died (possibly) in 1928. Dream Quests Carter was born in 1873 in Boston. His family frequently visited Arkham, a town notorious for its mystic qualities and relation to the Great Old Ones. At the age of ten, Carter developed a gift for predicting the future that remained with him all his life. In his early years, Carter became known as one of the Dreamland's greatest travellers; one of his greatest adventures was his journey to Kadath in the Frozen Wastes to ask for the sunset city of his dreams, in a tale which is still told now in that realm. It is difficult to recount his tale, as many of the physical laws inherent in the mortal world are not present in the Dreamlands. Carter was the first dreamer ever to go to Kadath; therefore, it was quite a difficult task, so he consulted the priests of Nasht and Kaman-Thah in their temple-like Cavern of Flame. Although they advised him to desist, he nevertheless continued on his journey. He entered the Enchanted Woods and encountered the zoogs, successfully pacifying them with his knowledge of the language. On their advice, he left for the cat-laden city of Ulthar and interviewed Atal, the wizened priest, who states that a carving on Ngranek's hidden side shows the features of the Gods. Carter formulated a plan; he would observe this carving, and then find the mortals whose faces resembled those on the carving. He would then be near Kadath, home of the Gods. He went to Dylath-Leen, a port town that is made entirely out of basalt. He intended to secure passage to Oriab on one of the mysterious Black Galleys. However, he was captured and took to the moon, where he discovered that the occupants of the Black Galleys were the slaves of the moon-beasts. These beasts begin to bring him to the dread God Nyarlathotep, but he is saved by the cats of Ulthar, and returned to the port of Dylath-Leen. Carter then boarded a ship sailing to Baharna, a great seaport on the isle of Oriab. He succeeded in his mission to find the God statues on the hidden side of Ngranek, but was surprised to learn that the features matched those of sailors who trade at the port of Celephaïs. Unfortunately, he was then snatched away by night-gaunts and left to die in the Vale of Pnath in the underworld. Carter, happily, was rescued by friendly ghouls, amongst them Richard Pickman, a friend of Carter's, who agree to return him to the upper Dreamlands. They voyaged to the Tower of Koth and into the Enchanted Woods without being killed by the native gugs. Pausing only to prevent a war between the zoogs and the cats of Ulthar, Carter headed for Celephaïs, and then began to trek into the Cold Wastes. Under the pretense of wishing to work in its quarries, Carter boarded a ship bound for Inganok, a nation built of onyx. When Carter arrived at Inganok, he purchased a yak and headed northward, in the hope that past the onyx quarries he would find Kadath. Captured by a slant-eyed man, he was brought to a monastery in which the dreaded High Priest Not to Be Described lived. However, Carter managed to escape the monastery by pushing the slant-eyed man into the Well leading to the Vaults of Zin. Carter, leaving the monastery, found himself in the ruins of Sarkomand. Finding his ghoulish allies once more, he was able to take control of the Black Galley (in which his undead friends had been captured) and fight the moon-beasts. He was victorious in this, and was able to transport all involved to Kadath via night-gaunts. Strangely, the castle of the Gods is completely empty. Waiting for a while, a great procession arrived, and a figure (who appeared to be some sort of Pharaoh) explained that the Gods have left Kadath for Carter's dream-city. The man, whose name is Nyarlathotep, advised him to return to his sunset city, and sent him via Inganok shantak-bird to this location. However, Carter realised that Nyarlathotep had tricked him, and that he was heading to the court of Azathoth. With an effort, Carter managed to take advantage of his ethereal location, and awaken from dreaming once more in his New England house. Alas, later in life he did not go on his dream-quests nearly as often, and it was around the age of thirty that they stopped. Instead, he began a quest for personal meaning that he never fully achieved. Later Life Carter joined the French Foreign Legion during World War One, where he encountered fellow dreamer Etienne-Laurent de Marigny, with whom he travelled into the crypts below Bayonne. This helped form a friendship which lasted for years. Another friend Carter made at this point was the poet Alan Seeger, who alas, perished in the Battle of the Somme. Randolph was severely wounded in the same battle, and was forced to return home. It was around this time that Carter became a pupil of one Harley Warren, an American scholar whose studies delved deeply into the Occult. Warren found an old grimoire (possibly the Necronomnicon) that stated that doors or gateways exist between the surface- and under- worlds, through which demons may pass. Warren and Carter travelled to one such portal: a graveyard near Big Cyprus Swamp in Florida. Warren entered the doorway (in this case a large tomb containing a staircase. The two occult students still retained contact, however, via a telephone wire- of course, the only statements Carter heard was some garbled screaming and a third, demonic voice stating "Run you fool- Old Harley Warren's DEAD!" The police questioned Carter, who gave a strange, confused account for what had happened, but was released on lack of evidence. On October 7, 1928, Randolph Carter vanished in the ruins of his family's ancestral mansion outside Arkham. Searchers discovered his car and his handkerchief that might have belonged to him, but no other trace of the writer was ever found. A few of his friends asserted that Carter had gone back to the land of his dreams to become the king of Ilek-Vad, but these statements where never taken seriously. Writing Career Carter was a writer of great ability, and released his first work, A War Come Near, in 1919, which was partly autobiographical, but he only achieved notoriety with his short horror story The Attic Window, which was printed in the magazine Whispers in 1922. It was purportedly so disturbing that many issues were kept off the shelves. Curiously, after writing the story, Carter was found with a friend unconscious on Meadow Hill, Arkham, with strange injuries that they never explained. Carter is best known, of course, for his fantasy novels. His early ones, written during his years of dreaming (i.e. Beyond the Wall of Sleep, Polaris), met with little success. However, his later, more sophisticated ones (i.e. The Rats in the Walls, The Descendants) garnered him some attention, but by the time of his disappearance, Carter had burnt all of his papers, finding is career as an author unsatisfying. Section heading Write the second section of your page here. Category:People Category:Pages Category:Cthulhu Category:Writers Category:Occultists